More On Hills

I've been continuing to examine why hills are so hard for me.  Yes, I expected a large degree of additional effort, but there's no way I'm as ill-conditioned as my recent hill runs seemed to indicate.  I must be wasting lots of energy, rather than harnessing it for propulsion.

After several more runs, I've discovered one of the reasons: Despite my best efforts to the contrary, I've been slightly over-striding while going uphill.  The point where my forefoot contacts the ground was slightly in front of my knee, due largely to the angle of the slope.  This caused me to 'step up' rather than 'fall forward', making progress more difficult.

So I made a conscious effort to get my uphill contact point back under my knee.  When I did so, I noticed two things:  First, going uphill now feels very much like running-in-place, where the contact point is forced to be under the knee.  This is a very familiar and comfortable feeling which serves as a good check on foot strike.

Second, I'm now able to run faster uphill (for the same effort) because the later strike means more of the propulsion effort comes at the end of the stride, where the leg is straighter and the muscles work with greater mechanical advantage: More forward progress with the same level of muscle recruitment

The more I run, the more I realize how important running-in-place is to the development of a comfortable running gait.

Running downhill is still an issue for me:  The downward slope means my heel contacts the ground earlier, and I've developed a small amount of continuous mild lower back pain.  I've tried pointing my toes to give my calves more time to absorb the impact, but it just caused a greater impact at the time of contact, which my back converts to pain.  I've tried running downhill in a slight squat, but that is way too fatiguing.

Well, it turns out that pointing my toes caused my contact point to once again move in front of my knee, creating more stopping force and making the impact worse rather than better.  So, again, I had to focus on keeping the point of impact under my knee.

But this shortened my stride which slowed me down, so I tried increasing my turnover rate to well over 200 bps.  This does help, some, but is too new to feel comfortable.  I plan to create some high-speed drills to try to make it feel more natural (fast running-in-place for downhill, plus some high-knee running-in-place for uphill).

I put it all together during today's 5K run, and I improved my 'hilly PR' by a surprising 90 seconds.  Minor technique tweaks can immediately yield major efficiency and speed gains.

The moral of the story so far is quite simple: No matter what the terrain is doing, always keep the point of contact under the knee, so it feels like running-in-place!

Why Run Hills?

I've been continuing to experiment with my run training over the past couple of months.  Since none of the races I plan to enter have any significant hills on the run course, I had been doing all of my run training on level ground.  (You know: "Train like you race, Race like you train.")  Unfortunately, I live in a hilly area, so I had been driving to a flatter area for my runs.

Which is really silly, when you look at the time and gas cost involved.  So I decided to start running closer to home.  On my first run, I thought I was going to die after the first hilly kilometer.

My pace on level ground has been gradually getting faster, going below 26 minutes for 5K, and 55 minutes for 10K (which is fast for me!).  But it took me 45 minutes to do my first 5K run with rolling hills, with at least 5 minutes of that spent resting, gasping for air.

Over the next three runs I was able to eliminate the rest stops, and now my average speed is slowly starting to improve, though it is nowhere close to my speed on level ground.

Clearly, my prior run training wasn't doing much for my cardio conditioning.  I was going as fast as I thought I could go while adequately monitoring my gait, and I wasn't worried too much about conditioning.  My intent was to not push my run too hard, maintain comfort and form, and build my conditioning by doing hill repeats on the bike.

Aside from the loss of breath, the main difference I noticed when changing to running hills was that my knees were taking more of a beating during the first kilometer.  My solution has been to do more of my warm-up on a small level area near my house.  I now run back and forth on my block until my heart rate just enters Zone 3, then I head for the hills.

Not surprisingly, 'comfortable running' can also be done on hills.  It's just not quite as 'comfortable' as it is on level ground!  It is certainly more of a diaphragm workout, and I'm also recruiting more quads and glutes.  Using different muscles, or using them in different ways, means I'm also using a slightly different gait in the hills.

What are the changes to my gait?  I've kept my metronome set at 190 bpm.  I've kept my body nearly vertical, with only a slight forward lean.  My decreased average speed with constant turnover means my average stride length is decreasing, which is expected.  I'm obviously doing far more work per kilometer.  This is also indicated by my having a higher average heartbeat during hilly runs.

Since my calves feel about the same after my hilly runs, nearly all the extra work and effort must be coming from my quads and glutes.  Were that happening on level ground, it would mean I'm running closer to the ground, due either to running in a slight squat or over-striding, otherwise those muscles wouldn't be recruited as much.

I expect to use more glutes going uphill, since I have to lift each foot higher to place it up the hill, meaning my quads and glutes have to do more to straighten the leg.

But I also found I'm using more quads and glutes going downhill.  Since I can't tolerate significant heel impact, by the time my forefoot touches the ground when going downhill, the ground is already close to my heel.  To avoid heel impact, I must use my quads to absorb much of my downward momentum, since the elevated ground beneath my heel means my calves will have less distance to do so.

I also find my back is a bit more tender after hill runs, which I believe means I'm not absorbing downhill impacts as well as I need to, despite increased quad and glute use.

For me, this means I'm not yet able to 'fly' downhill.  Something to work on, since this should be where I'll make the easiest improvement to my average speed.  Yet it is also where my legs are absorbing the greatest forces, meaning injury is easier.

I'm not worried about running comfortably uphill:  Keep the cadence high, take smaller steps, and improve my conditioning.  I believe staying comfortable downhill will be the real challenge.  I'm wondering if it will be possible to improve my downhill speed while simultaneously reducing impact.  That's my current research project.

Swim Buddy Guidelines

There has recently been some press about deaths occurring during the swim portion of triathlons, with the conclusion that the deaths were due to panic rather than health issues.

I thought I'd share what we do in San Diego to help beginner swimmers and first-time triathletes safely and confidently complete the swim portion of the race: We call our solution "Swim Buddies". Below I've copied some guidelines I gathered over my years spent being a Swim Buddy for just about every local race I wasn't competing in.

After the Guidelines, I'll summarize some of the reasons why I believe Swim Buddies aren't yet a universal part of all triathlons.

Swim Buddy Guidelines
Updated: 18/11/2011

Hello Swim Buddies!

What follows is my traditional Swim Buddy Info Dump: It may look large, but it should be easy reading. If you've seen it before, please read it again: I'm always updating it.

Mission Statement: The primary purpose of a Swim Buddy is simply to prevent a DNF (Did Not Finish) during the swim leg of the race. We do this by helping swimmers to: 1) Control fear, 2) Avoid over-exertion, and 3) Stay on the course.

Pre-Event Preparation:

Prior to race day, please check the following:

1. You have all your usual swim gear ready (including wetsuit).
   
   • If you already have any TCSD Swim Buddy caps, please let me know, and please bring it/them with you! It will save the club money.
2. You know the route to the event.
3. You know where you are going to park.
4. You know how to get from the parking area to the meeting location.
5. You allocate adequate time to arrive at the Swim Buddy meeting on schedule.

Race Day Morning:

PLEASE be sure to check your email before leaving for the event: If there are any late-breaking updates (such as rain or rough conditions canceling the swim), they'll be waiting for you.

At the specified time (about 30 minutes before the first wave), we will gather at the specified location (usually the Volunteer Booth) to check in, collect waivers, and have some snacks.

Next we will meet to go over these Swim Buddy guidelines, to hand out Swim Buddy caps to those needing them, and to answer any questions. The meeting will be held in wetsuits (well, you can get changed while I babble).

Please arrive on-time! Late arrivals (especially first-time Swim Buddies) mean I'll have to repeat everything, and I may not get to swim myself.

Swim Buddy "DOs and DON'Ts":

Just about all of these are common sense, but I prefer to lay them out to ensure we're all approaching things the same way.

DO:

1. Introduce yourself to your swimmer!
2. Ask about their swim ability and open-water experience.
3. Check over their equipment (especially look for bad/missing goggles).
4. Suggest they join TCSD to take advantage of our many FREE coached swim clinics.
5. Find out which side your swimmer prefers to breathe on, and plan to swim on that side.
6. Mention that we're all covered in foam rubber, so collisions are expected and are OK.
7. Describe what will/may happen (surf entry, swim, buoy turn, surf exit, goggle fog, etc.).
8. If there is a stingray warning, remind your swimmer to shuffle in and out of the water.
9. Use your swimmer's name frequently. It will have a calming effect.
10. When the wave starts, walk SLOWLY to the surf, letting the rest of the wave get well ahead, keeping things calm.
11. Encourage your swimmer to dive under waves and 'grab bottom' when the waves become too high or too strong to walk through.
12. Encourage your swimmer to swim slowly and steadily.
13. Stop when your swimmer stops, and help them rest/recover (float, relax).
14. If your swimmer gets really exhausted, recommend they float on their back. If needed, wave a lifeguard over so the swimmer can rest on the paddleboard.
15. Spot the buoys for your swimmer, and help them stay on course and out of traffic.
16. Tell your swimmer they're doing well, and how far along the course they are.
17. Tell your swimmer when traffic is approaching, and try to protect your swimmer by being very visible to the approaching traffic.
18. When reaching the exit surf zone, look back to spot the breakers for your swimmer.
19. Cheer for your swimmer as they head to transition!
20. Jog back to the Swim Buddy area.

DON'T:

1. Don't swim away from your swimmer! Stay about 1-2 feet to the side, and slightly ahead.
2. Don't touch your swimmer, except for nudges to change direction or to get their attention.
3. Don't be a lifeguard! If a lifeguard is needed, wave your arm over your head to attract their attention.
4. Don't suggest a swim stroke. Whatever your swimmer chooses will have to do.
5. Don't be a swim instructor! The swimmer is already busy enough without having to listen to a lesson. However: If your swimmer asks a question, you are free to answer it. Even if they ask for a swim lesson.

Lifeguards and Paddleboards:

1. A swimmer is permitted to hold on to a paddleboard to rest, but only if the paddleboard does not move the swimmer along the course. Be alert for tides and currents.
2. If a lifeguard thinks a swimmer should be removed from the course:
   
   • NEVER ARGUE WITH A LIFEGUARD!
   • You are permitted to ask the swimmer if they agree with the lifeguard. It is the swimmer's decision, unless the lifeguard insists.
   • The lifeguard is the final safety authority.

After the Swim Buddy Meeting:

At the end of the meeting we'll stash our gear. We will have at least three locations to choose from: The Registration/Volunteer booth, an expo exhibitor's booth, or near the swim start. The final decision will be made based on how things look in the morning (mainly on who has both space and security).

Next we'll hike to the swim start area. If you want to get in a quick warm-up swim, this will be the time for it. The warm-up area is generally located off and to the side of the swim course.

Pairing up with a Swimmer:

Before each wave starts (except, perhaps, the Pro/Elite waves), the announcer will ask if anyone would like to have a Swim Buddy. If someone raises a hand, walk on over and introduce yourself.

There are three basic types of swimmers who need Swim Buddies:

1. Inexperienced swimmers (fearful, often with no recent swimming experience).
2. Unprepared swimmers (pool swimmers lacking open-water practice).
3. Physically limited (very small or very large, very young or aged).

Determine which kind of swimmer you have! Some swimmers fit in all the above categories.

Sweeping:

Quite often, many people (mainly guys) will have no clue before the race starts that they will need a Swim Buddy. For this reason we send one or more 'sweepers' behind most waves.

If you are a sweeper and come up to a slow or struggling swimmer:

• FIRST ask: “I'm a Swim Buddy: Would you like me to swim with you?”
• Don't swim silently next to them like a shark, or just assume they will want your help.
• If they say 'Yes', introduce yourself and get their name.
• If they say 'No':
  
  1. Back off.
  2. Keep an eye on them (mainly so the lifeguards don't worry).
  3. Make the same offer to anyone they pass.
  4. If all the swimmers are doing well, and if you want some extra exercise, you can chase down swimmers who have gone off-course.

After Each Wave:

After the pro/elite waves, it can get fairly hectic as we send varying numbers of buddies out with each subsequent wave. It is important to get back to the Swim Buddy area (near the start) as soon as you can after each swim. I recommend jogging back.

If we run out of Swim Buddies for any wave:

• Shout at any Swim Buddies on their way back from the swim exit to RUN!
• Ensure there is at least one sweeper for the wave.
• One Swim Buddy may work with two or more swimmers: If they swim at different speeds, let the faster ones go ahead, and stay with the slowest one.
• Rough Surf Crew: If the surf is rough, 2-4 Swim Buddies will help swimmers for all waves through the surf entry, then swim the course with the last wave. As Swim Buddies come through the course, they will stay in the surf exit zone for a few waves.

The Last Wave:

It is a tradition for all Swim Buddies to get in the water and escort the very last swimmer to shore. It is optional, but it sure looks good in the event photos! It also lets us finish as a team.

First-Time Swim Buddies:

For you first-timers, all the above may seem a bit overwhelming. DON'T WORRY! There are at least two ways to get into this gradually, sweeping and doubling-up, and I'll describe them in detail during the meeting.

Final Notes:

Questions? Comments? Please contact me!

Again, thank-you VERY much for volunteering to be a Swim Buddy! It means a lot to me and to the event organizers. But it will mean so much more to the swimmers you assist. And I expect it will mean plenty to you as well.

Not at all difficult for an experienced triathlete to do, right? So then why are Swim Buddies not used everywhere?

1. USAT Regulations: Swim Buddies are considered "assistance" on the course. While this may be true in a very limited technical sense, in a practical sense it is false, and from a safety sense it is an insane policy.
   
   • Swim Buddies don't touch their swimmers, aside from incidental contact.
   • Swim Buddies don't lead their swimmers, so there's no assistance from drafting.
   • Swim Buddies are with the slowest and least able swimmers: Not a threat to any podium position.
2. Macho Attitude: Many race organizers believe you shouldn't enter a race unless you are prepared for it. Unfortunately, they rarely do anything to warn or help prepare first-timers, and so are, in my mind, completely culpable for all panic-related deaths, no matter what the event waiver says.

I believe Swim Buddies should be mandatory at all races that do no properly vet the experience of their field, and at all races of Olympic/International distance or less.

What do you think?

Neurology, Psychology and Pedagogy: Running on your Brain

In working with the folks in my Miserable Runners Group (MRG), and in the additional studying I've been doing, I've come to realize that there are only a few fundamental things a body must do to run comfortably. Remember, I'm talking about comfortable running here, with a stride that is merely effective, not necessarily fast or efficient.

But if you look around at all the "learn to run" methods out there, you'd think there were hundreds of different ways to run, with each one claiming the others are wrong or misguided!

Sure, there are differences, but mainly in style or order or emphasis, not, I now believe, in principal content (allowing for minor variations and additions/omissions between them).

Why then are there all these different approaches, if they all boil down to essentially the same thing? And why does each have its 'to the death' proponents and detractors?

I believe a big part of it comes down to psychology (how we think) and pedagogy (how we can be taught), both of which combine to determine how we, as individuals, will learn best. The study of learning has resulted in the description of several "Learning Modalities" ("LMs" from here on).

Depending on who you talk to, and in what context, there are up to 8 different LMs humans use to acquire skills and knowledge (just ask Google). Since running is a physical skill, we'll focus only on the LMs related to learning a physical skill, which include:

1. Linguistic/Logical/Verbal/Auditory: "Tell me what to do."
   This would be either Oral (a lecture or audio recording) or Reading (a book without pictures).
2. Visual: "Show me what to do. Let me watch someone do it right."
   Live demo, or video, or detailed images in a book or website.
3. Tactile/Proprioceptive/Kinesthetic: "Walk me through the motions."
   Literally taking the student by the hand, with continual hints and corrections.
4. Naturalist/Experimentalist/Intrapersonal: "I'll figure it out on my own."
5. Intrapersonal/Social/Observational: "Let me watch others learn it."

You'll notice I used lots of synonyms above: Each of the various communities involved with the study of learning (psychology, cognitive science, educators, etc.) has evolved its own specialized lingo, and splits hairs in different ways (mainly on how others do or don't participate in the learning process). Most groups do agree on a basic trio: Visual, Auditory, and Tactile. However, I find these three to be too simplistic to be useful in actual learning environments.

We each use all of the above LMs, but seldom all at once. We each tend to have one or more dominant or preferred LMs. However, the LMs used in any specific situation will generally depend on the task at hand, the environment, and the available resources.

If you look at the content of the various running instruction and coaching systems, you will see many of the differences between them boil down to different levels of emphasis placed among the various LMs. It can be almost comical to watch authors attempt to invoke other LMs within the context of a book: Way too often it can fail miserably (which is why there are so many DVDs and YouTube videos out there). Quite often, the author's own least-favored LMs can limit or restrict what can be taught and how well it can be taught.

When the student's dominant LMs align with the instructor's, Magic Happens! It can feel like the instructor or author or coach has climbed into our minds and bodies to directly and rapidly implant knowledge and skills. But it would be silly to have to wait for such magic before we can learn: We must be adaptable, both as students and instructors, and try to make the best possible use of all available LMs. When it comes to learning, the integrated use of multiple LMs is always greater than the sum of using individual LMs.


So then, do variations in the use of LMs account for the differences between, say, "Chi Running" and "The POSE Method"? Combined with, perhaps, a different ordering of the chapters?

To a significant extent, yes, but not completely: The LMs are mainly concerned with getting knowledge into our brains. Getting our bodies to do what our brains want them to do is a whole 'nother ball of wax.

It turns out, not only do we each use a different range and combination of LMs, but each of us has different ways of using our minds to control complex body motion. For example, if I want to encourage you to use a short, quick stride, I could say any of the following, some of which may work better for you than for others:

• Put your foot down sooner.
• Lift your foot sooner.
• Take smaller steps.
• Don't put as much weight on your heel.
• Be light on your feet.
• Swing your arms faster.

Each of the above may sound like a very different thing, since each describes a different portion of the stride. I used to think they were different things. To an elite athlete, perhaps they are. For a beginner, in reality they are different views or perspectives (not parts), of the same thing.

When watching various coaches in action, I'd occasionally see them get frustrated when advice that works for one beginner fails miserably for another with the same problem. They'd spend time teaching it using all available LMs, but the athlete would still prove unable to put that specific piece of advice into action.

I've been through it myself, while trying to help beginner open-water swimmers include key motions in their stroke. For example, if I wanted you to increase the amount of body roll in each stroke, I could say any of the following:

• Breathe by turning your body to get your face to the side, not your neck.
• Get a shoulder out of the water with each stroke.
• Get an eye above the water even on the non-breathing side.
• Roll your hips more.
• Swim "skinny" in the water, more on your side.

Some swimmers would 'get it' from one description, while other swimmers would 'get it' from another. I'd go through the sequence until finding the one (or combination) that worked best. Quite often, it seems we are searching for a 'trick' that suddenly makes the desired motion 'make sense' and 'just happen'.

What's going on here? Why do we often need to use different descriptions (within the same LM) to achieve a given result?

My first thought was that it had something to do with differences in how we each process language. But that can't be it: Neither the language being used, nor the concept being described, are complex enough to be affected by differences in language use or comprehension. Not even by those for whom English is a second or third language. I rarely have had anyone appear to be confused by what I meant by the phrases I used. They just didn't know how to make their bodies do what the words meant!

I did some reading about how our conscious thoughts are turned into physical action. It turns out, we have direct conscious control over only limited parts of our musculature. For example, if I tell you to wiggle just your little finger, it is easy. But if I tell you to wiggle just your little toe, it may well be impossible for you to do.

We have significant conscious control over our hands. Commands to the rest of the body get processed in unconscious ways before the relevant muscles get activated. While it is easy to blink both eyes on command, it is much harder to blink just one eye. And we barely have control over our arms: Try patting your stomach with one hand while rubbing the top of your head with the other. Then switch. Even such simple motions have a large degree of unconscious processing involved, and overcoming that processing can be very difficult.

This is why we often need to do repetitive drills to teach our bodies to perform new motions, such as playing a complex Bach piece on the piano. Such training processes actually lay down new neural pathways within the conscious brain, and between the brain and the muscles involved.

Repetition is not always needed: In many instances an appropriate pathway already exists, but we lack direct conscious access to it. But if we think about a thing in different ways, then different pathways get activated, and we may find that one way of thinking suddenly produces the desired action when other ways of thinking failed.

This is what I believe happens in many beginner athletes, but the extent to which this can happen appears to diminish as athletic performance improves. Simply put, as experience builds, then if a desired pathway exists, at some point it would already have been accessed. So as you become more proficient, you may find that repetitive drills are more often needed to implement even a minor technique change.

I believe beginners are poised to make immense gains from the outset, mainly because thinking a different thought can have a rapid and direct physical response.

It is almost as if the nerves to our muscles comprehend only a subset of the language we think with, and we need to keep trying different thoughts, using different wordings, until we stumble upon a conscious thought the motor neurons 'understand'. And if we fail to stumble upon one, then we need to create it through repetitive drills.

There is lots of literature about how repetitive drills work. One important aspect is that much of the processing that controls our muscles happens far outside of our conscious brains. The spine performs a massive amount of processing: If we stub our toe, our leg muscles start to pull the foot back long before we consciously feel the pain. If we touch a hot pan with our hand, the same thing happens. Much 'reflex' action occurs in the spine, not the brain.

Reflexes are, by definition, involuntary actions. We are presently concerned with voluntary actions. These, too, require significant processing in the spine and 'lower' parts of the brain in order to happen. When we walk, we aren't consciously thinking about our balance, or how we will move our feet to react to changes in balance. We do control our walking to the extent that we set the speed and direction, yet we have no conscious involvement in making the individual muscles fire, or in integrating balance signals from the inner ear with muscular actions.

This processing occurs in parts of the brain and spine that are only mildly affected by conscious thought. Many repetitions are needed before the conscious thought will be able to cause the desired physical action on command. Or, conversely, to replace one automatic motion pattern with another.

When trying something completely new, when not trying to make only a tiny refinement in an existing motion, it is worth applying the effort needed to try thinking differently about the desired motion from every possible perspective, to see if we can stumble upon an existing pathway we can use to aid our efforts.

I believe this is why you will find that some beginner running technique books contain advice that 'just works' for you, while other equally well-written books do little or nothing for you. Part of it may be due to how the LMs are used. But a significant part of it is not about how the book teaches something, but it may instead be more about how the phrases the author has chosen interact with your specific brain-body connections.

The books that work best for the most people seem to do lots of repetition, not only to employ multiple LMs, but also to say the same thing in as many different ways as possible. The more advanced a book gets, the less often repetition is used for any purpose: Elite athletes and coaches are expected to do the work of using the appropriate LMs and finding the best ways to describe the concepts.

Beginners, on the other hand, have different needs, and can respond to methods of coaching that would be inapplicable to an advanced athlete. I believe many coaches have not yet learned this, and will often try to use elite techniques (and expect elite responses) when they interact with beginners.

Elites seem to need to break things down to their smallest components before changes can be made. When optimized performance is desired, the changes have to be customized to the athlete. The elite athlete typically learns less and less as they go on: They have mastered the fundamentals, and everything else is details. They have developed highly optimized neural pathways, and repetition is needed to change them. So it may take increased effort for an elite to learn the next 'detail'. More and more work for ever tinier improvements.

Beginners need to learn only a very small number of relatively simple things. Beginner triathletes can get along extremely well with a 'one size fits all' freestyle swim stroke, and a 'one size fits all' comfortable running gait. For the beginner to find that common stroke and gait, they will need to use their bodies in ways that have little resemblance to what they've done before. Everything is big changes: Nothing is details. But sometimes the beginner can 'get lucky' and make use of an existing pathway to rapidly learn large chunks of technique. The problem is finding those pathways.

I feel very fortunate that I started helping out with coaching while I was still very much a beginner: The instinctive way I coached was very close to how I learned, and it has only been recently that I've tried to figure out what's really been happening with the beginners I've worked with, including myself.

The key, sometimes, is just finding the right words. It's not about learning different parts of a technique (no beginner needs that), but learning a single technique by focusing on various parts until one of them gets results. The end result is the same, no matter which part 'works'!

Put another way, it is pointless to get caught up in what the 'ideal' gait for a specific beginner runner should be: There is no such thing. Only elites and experienced amateurs get to search for a personal 'ideal' gait. Beginners should seek only a 'comfortable' gait, and there is a common gait for that. The terminology and phrases used in both beginner and elite books may sound very similar, though I now understand the goals are different: For an elite, there may be one phrase that best describes a needed gait adjustment. For a beginner, there may be one phrase that can make the entire gait happen almost as a whole.

That's why I said at the beginning of this rather long post that there are only a very few things the body has to learn to become able to run comfortably. It's just a single, common, simple gait. The beginner doesn't need to be taught individual pieces and details, the beginner needs only to find the right description, which can often sound just like going through a list of details.

In other words: If you want to learn from a book, be prepared to get all the beginner books! I believe they all wind up at about the same place, despite taking paths that look very different.


I'll conclude with a few side notes, each of which should probably become its own future blog post:

Side Note #1: Based on my own experience as a patient, I believe much of Physical Therapy involves not just restoring physical range, speed or force of bodily motion, but more importantly on establishing conscious and unconscious control over that motion. All Physical Therapists will focus on improving the measurable aspects of strength and mobility: Only the best Physical Therapists will go beyond this to establish new activities and new levels of comfortable performance, even beyond what was present before the injury occurred! I believe this may be a significant factor in why some PT results 'stick' and others 'fade'.

Side Note #2: When an experienced athlete is recovering from a significant injury requiring a prolonged absence from running, rather than trying to return to a prior 'ideal' gait, it may be better to become a beginner again, to quickly learn (or re-learn) a simple 'comfortable' gait, and then evolve that gait to become a new 'ideal' gait. I suspect it will permit a faster return to running with a reduced risk of repeated injury. And it may even lead to a new performance peak, rather than trying to force a changed body to perform using an unchanged gait.

Side Note #3: I believe each of us should always keep a 'comfortable beginner's gait' in our running arsenal, even as we learn advanced techniques and build ever greater speed and endurance. I call it my 'Git Her Home' gait, which I will use whenever I suddenly find myself spent before the end of the run, and stopping or walking is not (yet) an option. This has happened to me with annoying frequency as I continually attempt to maximize my performance: I will bonk by making a nutrition mistake, or I will take a hill too hard and need to recover at the top, or I get sucked into running on the shoulder of someone who is much faster than I am, or I discover in the middle of a run that I actually do have a cold, or I stumble and have trouble getting all the pieces working smoothly together again, or I realize my new shoes aren't as comfortable as I had hoped. My Beginner's Gait let's me keep running at faster than a jogging pace while simultaneously letting my body recover and sort itself out.

I am always disappointed to see top athletes suddenly go from all-out running to walking: It seems they have just two running speeds: All and Nothing, Win and Lose, with lots of suffering and little room for recovery while running. Perhaps that's what's needed to ascend to the top. I think the rest of us should have more usable gears. For us, the first goal should always be to enjoy the experience and finish without pain or injury, the second goal should be to maintain good form and avoid walking, and only the third goal should be to win or set a new PR.

SwimSmooth: "Stroke Technique Is Even More Important In Open Water"

The wise, friendly and communicative folks at SwimSmooth have a recent blog post with the above title.  The main point they make is that bilateral breathing leads to a straighter open water stroke.  I'd say something more fundamental is also involved: Symmetric body rotation, independent of breathing, leads to a straighter stroke.

Though I'm a relative beginner myself, with just over 3 years in the open water and no freestyle swimming at all before that, I've spent the past two years helping beginners in the open water.  Basically, I started in, and never left, TCSD's (the Triathlon Club of San Diego's) beginner open-water swim clinic.  I first stayed around as a helper, and now (amazingly) as an assistant coach.

I work with a rotating group of 20-50 beginner swimmers every week.  Along with the leaders and senior coaches in our clinic, I suspect there aren't too many people around who regularly coach more true open-water beginners.

Our primary approach is to make open water swimming fun and enjoyable.  We've found that if a swimmer is comfortable in the water, then speed and distance will come simply because they will want to practice.  We don't get technical in our clinic, we don't focus at all on speed, and we focus on distance sufficient only to prepare them to survive and enjoy their first sprint triathlon.

"It is not possible to win a triathlon during the swim, but it is easy to lose one there."  - Common triathlon proverb

We focus primarily on 'functional form', and we teach a one-size-fits-all freestyle stroke that anyone can learn, a stroke that is optimized to get any beginner comfortably through the open water.  We don't explicitly target efficiency, and instead focus on teaching beginners to monitor themselves with every stroke and stay within their limits.

While I won't go into all the details of the stroke we teach, a primary component is to minimize all twisting of the neck.  We ask them to imagine trapping a small ball between the chin and upper chest.  That means in order to breathe, you must rotate your body!

Since we generally wear wetsuits in San Diego (the air is warm, but the ocean is cool), one of the greatest afflictions for new open water swimmers are neck rashes, more popularly known as 'wetsuit hickies'.  The cause isn't the fit or design of the wetsuit:  Eliminating neck rotation completely eliminates this problem at its source.

Surprisingly, we don't focus at all on bilateral breathing, other than to mention the reasons why it is a Good Thing.  What we do emphasize is having fully symmetric body rotation on every stroke, so that you always get one eye out of the water, even on the non-breathing side.  When a beginner later chooses to try bilateral breathing, their head will already be in the right position for it.

Yes, this may seem to be quite a lot of head and body rotation, and some folks do indeed experience dizziness or mild nausea while adjusting to it over the course of a few hours practice.  When this occurs, we suggest swimming with an extremely low stroke rate, about one arm per second.

We find that a low stroke rate not only makes the rotation more tolerable during the adaptation phase, but it also helps the swimmer focus on their whole body, especially the core, back and legs, instead of focusing only on using their arms to make progress through the water.  Many beginners twist and contort their bodies as they swim, and slowing things down helps them observe and correct this behavior on their own.

Many beginners lack upper body strength and endurance.  Here again, a very slow stroke rate has immense benefits, helping beginners avoid exhaustion and anxiety or panic (and the subsequent perception of wetsuit tightness we call 'neoprene smothering').  We focus on 'slow form' because, quite often, that's all the beginner swimmer can handle!

If you first find form and fun, fitness and fastness follow!

Another benefit of our 'no neck rotation' form element is that when the swimmer leaves sheltered water and encounters chop, surge and swells in the open ocean, they will then be able to easily add some neck rotation to get their mouth further away from the turbulent surface and thus make breathing more successful.

I've seen several fast open water swimmers with minimal shoulder rotation who experience nausea whenever they encounter even mildly unsettled conditions, claiming it was due to the 'rough water'.  I would tend to disagree: I believe it may have more to do with their having to add unaccustomed rotation to their stroke in order to breathe.  It seems best to address motion sensitivity while still a beginner.

Full, symmetric rotation not only supports a straight stroke, but also prepares the beginner for bilateral breathing and rougher conditions.

Another advantage of always getting an eye out of the water on the non-breathing side is that it vastly improves 'situational awareness' during a race.  We teach our beginners to draft to make the swim leg of a triathlon faster and easier.  When swimmers pass close by, it is tough to draft them if you never see them!

Proficient pool swimmers making the transition to open water often have the greatest difficulty learning 'full rotation'.  It seems they are so used to staring down at that black line that they often have great difficulty not only with rotation, but also with spotting/sighting in the open water.  They also tend to get the most wetsuit hickies.

Another complicating factor for pool swimmers is their insistence on kicking.  In a wetsuit, kicking provides little or no benefit, unless you have such a large motor that you have the energy to spare.  So another component of our beginner open-water stroke is minimizing kicking.  Most are able to eliminate it entirely, though a few folks need one kick per stroke to aid rotation.

The immediate benefit of eliminating kicking is that the body's energy stores are reserved for use by the arms.  For our beginners, it is important their energy lasts for the full session, and isn't exhausted too soon.

Since beginners tend to spend a long time in the water during their first few races, we do teach them to kick during the last 50 meters of the swim in order to get their legs warmed up and ready for exiting the water: This tends to eliminate the all too common "stand-up-then-face-plant" event at the end of the swim.  It is also useful for everyone at the end of an Ironman swim.

One more thing about pool swimmers transitioning to the open water: I've seen proficient pool swimmers be surprised and panicked after their first 100 meters in the open water due to unexpected exhaustion.  Removing the pool wall removes the flip-turn which in turn removes the long recovery glide their bodies are accustomed to having at the start of each length of the pool.  If they want to become good open water swimmers, I suggest they 1) don't let their feet touch the wall, 2) sight on the lane dividers instead of the black line, and 3) practice with a pull-buoy.

Back to the topic at hand: The stroke I've described is taught to beginners to help them become comfortable swimming in the open water and to ensure success in their first sprint triathlon.  After that, we encourage our 'graduates' to get lots of practice and to start attending the more advanced swim workouts and clinics our club offers several times each week.

I hope this hasn't sounded too heretical, but all I can say is that I've seen it consistently work well for many open water beginners.  We don't try to turn them into competitive swimmers, nor do we even try to help them find their personal, ideal stroke.  We try only to give them a basic foundation that works well, is easy to learn, and doesn't get in the way of having fun.

What may be a bit more heretical is that we also teach our beginners to glide.  We found that simply doing a slow-motion stroke is often not the best way to swim with a low stroke rate.  It is often better to combine a powerful stroke with a glide. This not only provides a brief recovery period during each stroke, but also builds strength and muscle memory while simultaneously helping the beginner become acutely aware of the overall shape and position of their body in the water.  If your body isn't straight, you will see yourself head off-course during the glide.  And, importantly, a short glide also momentarily halts rotation, further helping limit dizziness and nausea while learning 'full rotation'.

STROKE, glide, look-to-the-side, STROKE, glide, look-to-the-side.

The best thing about beginners learning with a glide in their stroke is that as fitness and conditioning improve, it is easy to reduce then eliminate the glide.  Conversely, if an intermediate swimmer becomes over-tired during a swim, briefly restoring a familiar glide can permit them to recover without stopping.  A glide is a Good Thing for an open water beginner to learn.

Though I've not discussed all aspects of the basic stroke we teach, some of the parts I have described may in some ways seem counter-intuitive or even wrong.  All I can say is that it absolutely helps beginners swim straight and far, then permits them to smoothly progress toward improved conditioning and higher speed.

Most importantly, it creates open water swimmers who have a blast in the water and race really well, staying on-course in the midst of a crowded field, even in unsheltered open water.

The Miserable Runners Group

Hi,

I'm Bob, and I'm a Miserable Runner.

My goal is to use this Fall and Winter to become Less Miserable, and to run my first-ever half-marathon next Spring.

We all know the saying: "Misery Enjoys Company."  If that's not a great reason to start a running group, I don't know what is!

If you've been reading my blog you already know my story, but here's the short version:  For my entire adult life, running has never been easy for me, especially past the first mile.  I briefly ran 10Ks in my early 30's, but soon quit due to joint and foot pain that didn't go away for days.  Triathlon found me just over 3 years ago, just before I turned 52, and just as my body started falling apart.

My love of triathlon has not permitted me to quit running, and with each new (and old) running problem, I have kept studying the available resources, kept asking questions of doctors, physical therapists, coaches, academic researchers and fellow athletes, and kept learning and trying new techniques to improve my run despite my limitations.

I believe I finally have learned enough to pursue serious distance running with a greatly reduced risk of future injury.  However, I seem to lack some of the discipline needed to consistently apply what I've learned to myself.  I believe I will do much better as part of a group that meets 2-3 times per week.

I'd like this group to focus not on speed, but on comfort over distance.  To be able to eventually run long distances without stopping, and without injury.  Yes, we'll want to go as fast as possible, but speed will always be a minor concern, with comfort and safety always coming first.

I first want to focus on preparing our bodies for running, rather than simply strapping on our running shoes and making the same old mistakes over and over again.  This will involve basic muscle strengthening, improving balance and mobility, and (re)learning the motions and muscle use patterns needed to run comfortably.

In chats with other miserable runners, one common situation I've seen is that many people have no idea what a proper running shoe fit feels like!  While I can't fit a shoe to anyone's foot, I do believe I've learned quite a bit about how you can learn to go shoe shopping and find the best available shoe for your foot.  This is something that must be addressed before doing any serious mileage.

I want our group to be about running, not run-walk or jogging.  I'm talking about non-stop running, where we learn to manage our breath and energy so we don't have to stop due to overexertion.  Where we become able to continuously monitor our running form, and learn to stop running when our form starts to fall apart, long before we cause any injury or pain.  I want each of us to become able to do long distances at a 10 minute per mile pace, and shorter distances at a somewhat quicker pace.

Being allergic to pain (it makes me cry), I plan to do all the above without misery, but with lots of determination.  I think the phrase "No Pain, No Gain" does not and should not apply to age-group athletes.  Let the elites go down that path.  My goal is to find that place where "I Run Because It's Fun".

Also, I'm not a running coach.  I'm just a guy who has been frustrated by some major problems with his own running, and who has studied and tried lots of things to get past them. I still have questions, and I'm still learning, and I'd much rather do it as part of a group.

Most importantly, I'm done with injuries!  I want our group to be all about injury prevention and avoidance.  Safety and comfort must always come first.

So, would you like to join me? Please let me know!

Reading Your Own X-Rays

As triathletes, we often sustain injuries requiring some form of medical imaging to arrive at a diagnosis and a treatment plan.  The images will most often start with X-Rays, which if inconclusive may be followed by an MRI or CAT-scan, or on rare occasions a bone scan.  We then get a diagnostic pronouncement from our doctor, complete with hand-waving and finger-pointing in the general direction of the medical images.

The sad fact is, doctors are occasionally wrong, or at least not "completely correct".  I have personal experience with this.  Most often, they simply leap to a logical conclusion, a natural by-product of having only a 15 minute appointment to work with.  Other times they are "almost-right" or "right enough", and the prescribed care is adequate for the actual injury.  But sometimes "close" is not good enough, and much time can be lost pursuing ineffective treatments.

You should view your doctor as being an educated and dedicated professional, though one who is operating under lots of time pressure, who also is only human. The best way to improve your outcome is to be able to help your doctor as much as possible, to be able to help gather symptoms, to help analyze them, and to help find the best remedy.  A second way, of course, is to always get a second opinion before doing anything major like harsh drugs or surgery, or after an initial treatment fails.

If you had an extra 8-10 years, you could become a doctor yourself.  Well, for at least one specialty, if not for all the specialties involved with athletic injuries.  However, just because the knowledge mountain is truly huge, that does not mean there isn't lots of valuable and useful medical knowledge each of us can and should learn and learn to use.

The best place to start is with "A&P": Anatomy and Physiology.  Being able to name the parts of your body, know what they do, and know how they fit together.  While it may be interesting and fun to learn the whole body, the easiest and most useful way to start is with the specific areas of recent injuries.  And most of our pain and injuries tend to be in the legs and feet.

When studying a portion of the body, it is good to start from the inside and proceed outwards, starting with the bones and cartilage, then the ligaments, then the muscles and tendons, and finally the nerves.  But even that is a large amount of information.

So, rather than learn everything about even a single body region or subsystem, we can start by taking advantage of a fundamental property of our bodies: We have bilateral symmetry.  If we hurt on one side, the other side will likely be an excellent reference for comparison.  Instead of learning all about the injury area, we can start by looking for things that differ between the two sides.

When making comparisons, our eyes are our best sensors.  When looking inside our bodies, X-Rays give our eyes lots to work with.

A possible first step in this direction is to learn what your doctor is doing when ordering X-Rays.  A typical order includes the name of the body part and descriptions of the desired views.  But this is also quite a lot to learn: Most doctors don't remember the names of all the possible views, and tend to work from multiple choice lists.

What I do instead is simply request that the same exposures be taken on both sides of the body. This way, no matter what the exposures are, I will be able to compare the same views for two body parts: One injured, and one (presumably) healthy.
 
Many doctors will automatically order X-Rays for both sides, or will gladly do so if asked.  If the doctor won't order the duplicate exposures (citing issues of necessity, cost or radiation exposure), I've sometimes been able to convince the X-Ray tech to image both sides at once on a single plate (same number of shots).  The doctor may not need the additional images, but I sure do!

After the appointment, get a copy of the X-Ray images downloaded onto CD or DVD (a minor charge, if any, though there may be some paperwork).  I recommend waiting until after a radiologist reads the X-Rays, since his report will typically be included with the X-Ray data.

Next, you get to play Home Radiologist!  There are several free/open programs available to help you examine your X-Ray images (opening DICOM files, zooming, contrast stretching, pseudo-color enhancement, etc.).  You may need to try several programs before finding one that you are comfortable learning and using.

Before looking for any specific conditions, start with getting used to playing with X-Rays.  Most of the above programs include tutorials to help you learn your way around X-Ray images.  There are also several tutorials online that will teach you about what you can find by examining an X-Ray, though most of these tutorials are aimed at medical students, and are thus written in 'medglish' (Medical English: English with lots of Latin and Greek thrown in).

Next, learn the anatomy imaged by the X-Rays.  Much can be learned while viewing an X-Ray alongside a good anatomical reference (I use the images in Wikipedia and WebMD).  There are also many online sources for reference X-Ray images, such as MedPix.  Use these for practice until you get your own images.

Another great resource is your dentist.  Most of us get dental X-Rays taken twice each year, so there is lots of history, redundancy and variety to work with.  Most dentists are more than happy to share how they examine your images, and explain what they find.  My dentist and I have an ongoing contest to see if I can spot everything that's going on before she reads my images.

It can take many hours to 'train our eyes' (train our visual perception system) to 'see' (search for and find) subtle variations in X-Ray images.  Having lots of images to examine really helps, especially multiple views of the same part on both sides of the body.

I have well over a decade of my own X-Ray data for my back, knees, ankles and feet.  (Yeah, I'm getting older, and my X-Rays prove it.)  These images get more valuable not only with each passing year, but also with each new injury.

Three years ago I had knee pain that was diagnosed as being caused by ITB Syndrome, and a stretching regimen was prescribed.  My Sports MD also took X-Rays of my knees to ensure there was no other damage.  The nurse pulled the images up on a display, and while I waited for the doctor to return I correctly identified my own chondromalacia.

I didn't know that was what it was called at the time, nor what caused it, but I knew enough about X-Rays and basic knee anatomy to able to quickly spot the differences between the X-Ray images of my two knee caps, and to associate that with both my pain and the range of motion over which the pain occurred.

This skill really paid off for me very recently.  I had initially injured my foot last October, and everyone I talked to, including my MD, said it appeared to be a stress fracture of the second metatarsal.  X-Rays showed nothing, which is not unusual for first-time stress fractures.  And, sure enough, 6-8 weeks later I was able to gently return to running.

In a recent triathlon I again experienced sudden pain in the same place, but with less than half the intensity I had in October.  I decided to finish the race, with the commitment to immediately quit if the pain increased to its prior level.

Two days later I was back with my MD, who ordered more X-Rays.  To our mutual surprise, not only was no new break visible, but I immediately saw there was no hint of the bone thickening expected from the healing of the prior stress fracture.  We had a bona-fide mystery on our hands, and we decided to call in a specialist.

My MD gave me a referral to a podiatrist, who then diagnosed a problem with my transverse metatarsal ligaments (the ligaments that cross the foot connecting the heads of the metatarsals).  He confirmed that I had never had any significant stress fractures in either foot.  Fortunately, the treatment and recovery for both injuries is nearly identical (don't run, avoid causing pain, wait 6-8 weeks).  I'm in another recovery phase now.

The lesson here is that many physical ailments don't show up on X-Rays, so it is important to know not only how to look for damage, but also to know to look for expected characteristics that are missing.  Either way, learning your way around an X-Ray is valuable.

While few will likely want to get this involved in analyzing their own medical data (yes, I am an engineer), I do highly recommend everyone become comfortable viewing their own X-Rays, and not be afraid to say "Show me!" whenever a diagnosis is made from the X-Ray data, to typically be followed by asking "Where?", "Why?", "How?" and so on.

If you do get involved with reading your own X-Rays and decide to look at an MRI, you should know that MRI images are at least 10 times harder to analyze and interpret.  Even specialists have trouble with them, and recent studies have shown MRI to sometimes be a relatively poor primary diagnostic tool, and it has been shown to be almost useless for correctly diagnosing sources of back pain (leading to needless surgery that harms or fails to help the patient).  So be very wary when your orthopedist uses an MRI to justify a surgical remedy!  Ask if the same recommendation would be made without the MRI images, and insist that additional imaging be performed (X-Ray, CAT-scan, bone scan, ultrasound, etc.) before consenting to surgery or other risky or costly treatments.  And, of course, always get a second opinion.

You are the one who has to sign your treatment consent forms.  You have to go through the treatment.  You have to deal with the after-effects.  You are fully responsible for what is done to your body!  It is important that you learn as much as possible about the entire diagnosis and treatment process, and never blindly trust doctors (or anyone else).  The more serious the injury and/or the more drastic the treatment, the more vital detailed knowledge becomes.

X-Rays are a nearly universal diagnostic tool for finding and identifying structural damage.  Your doctor will order them either to confirm a specific diagnosis, and/or to exclude other possible problems.  Either way, the more you know, the sooner you will start the correct treatment.


I have not included any of my own X-Rays here, nor have I described the specific things I do to examine them.  This is intentional:  I want to avoid giving the false impression that I am any kind of an expert when it comes to interpreting medical X-Rays.

I am not a medical radiologist, though I do have extensive experience with industrial radiographic imaging.  I have developed several industrial imaging systems, and have trained operators in their use.

I am more than willing to list the tools I use and how I use them, but a blog post is not the best forum.  If you'd like a demo, please say so in the comments or contact me directly.  If you are local, I'll put together a small seminar.  If not, I'll try to learn how to make a YouTube video.